immersion in hip-hop gravity, flow and humor by one of pop music's greatest living singers. It never forgets that, yes, Aretha can rock the house, but what she really excels at is mood. This is what becomes a legend most." Jeremy Helligar, writing for Entertainment Weekly, found that the album had "an unusual bloom. On tunes like ”Every Lil’ Bit Hurts” and ”Never Leave You Again,” co-producers Combs, Jermaine Dupri, Lauryn Hill, and others help Franklin recapture a gutsy urgency long missing from her records, earning her respect once more." He gave the album a B+ rating. Commercial performance Issued in March 1998, A Rose Is Still a Rose debuted at number 30 on the US Billboard 200 and number 7 on Billboards Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. This marked Franklin's highest debut position yet as well as her highest peak since 1985's Who's Zoomin' Who?. A steady seller, the album sold 294,000 copies within its first five months of release and was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in August 1998, indicating sales in excess of more than 500,000 units. Her biggest commercial success of the 1990s, A Rose Is Still a Rose would remain Franklin's final album to earn a RIAA certification in the United States. Elsewhere, A Rose Is Still a Rose entered the top forty of the charts it appeared on but was less successful than previous releases. The album debuted and peaked at number 29 on the Swedish Albums Chart, and reached number 32 and number 36 in Norway and Switzerland, becoming her lowest-charting album since 1983's Get It Right on all three markets. A Rose Is Still a Rose produced two singles, led by its same-titled lead single. Franklin's highest-charting single in four years, it peaked at number 26 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 22 on the UK Singles Chart, marking Franklin's last top 40 hit on both markets until her death in 2018. In addition, "A Rose Is Still a Rose" topped Billboards Dance Club Songs chart and peaked at number five on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Follow-up "Here We Go Again" also reached number one on Billboards Dance Club Songs. Track listing Credits adapted from the liner notes of A Rose Is Still a Rose. Additional Notes Production for "In Case You Forgot" and "In the Morning" is coordinated by Ivy Skoff Production for